Week 22: Tessellations – Paper Method
This week we will do tessellations that fit together through translation (moving without rotation). We will look at reflection and rotation in other weeks. There are a few different ways to do this, but we will use the paper method today. I always start the class by talking about what different kind
Week 21: Hexagon Tessellations
I love tessellating! This week we are playing with hexagons. Learners can either draw or cut various hexagonal designs with various colors. It is fun to see what secondary patterns can occur. Do other polygons tessellate? This is a wonderful activity to practice mindfulness and presence as you play
Week 20: Angles within a circle
This week learners can play with angles with both grand projects and smaller art projects. There are 360 degrees in a circle or 2pi radians. Learners can draw a circle and then mark every 20 degrees (or every 30 or any factor of 360). Factors: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 12, 15, […]
Week 19: Math Haiku
Poetry forms are like a puzzles. You have to take the words you want to say and rearrange them, find synonyms, and reformulate them until they can fit in a form. This problem solving is so similar in math. One of the first forms to play with is the Haiku. It is a three line […]
Week 18: Castles, Maps and Spaceships – Let’s Draft
This week learners can dive deep into their imaginary worlds (or real world inventions). The project this week is to create a map, castle, spacecraft or invention. The math focus will be on developing a sense of scale. Younger learners may practice scale with proportions in their drawings. Older lea
Week 17: Sierpinski in 3D Building Toys
This week break out your blocks (or whatever building toy you enjoy). We are building a Sierpinski cube (Menger Sponge) or Sierpinski tetrahedron. I would also encourage learners to create their own shape and expand on it to create a self-similar sculpture or fractal (think what each iteration would
Week 16: Geometric Sketching – Hummingbird
I love to incorporate drawing skills into math education. This week I encourage learners to start seeing birds (or other animals/people) as shapes. Heads are circles, torsos are ellipses, beaks are triangles, wings are long ellipses… Sketching is a skill. A skill is something that you can master in
Week 15: String Art
This is a classic, yet fun activity with math: Start with a compass or protractor and create a circle with evenly spaced points around it. Students can figure out how many degrees need to be between points (example: if you want 10 points, then there are 36 degrees between each point, for 9 points :
Week 14: Guess the rule – math game
One of my hobbies is to take completely non-math related games and modify them for classes. I don’t know what to call this game, it is probably a variation of “psychiatrist” or something, but here is how it goes: In a group of at least 4 players, ask one player to leave the room and […]
Week 13: Clay Möbius Strips
There are lots of amazing paper Möbius strips that are fun. You can cut down the middle, twist multiple times, make a Möbius paper chain, and try it with various materials. For a basic paper tutorial, I found a good one here. Rather than creating the classic paper strips, this week learners will be
